Everybody is going nuts over a patent decision regarding the iPod interface, but that’s not what I’m writing about (so don’t ask me for my opinion). Rather, I’m reacting to the claims being made by many people that Apple will have to pay Microsoft $10 for every iPod.

What I want to know is where this amount “$10” came from.

Multiple people are confidently reporting a sawbuck as the amount in question. GeekCoffee attributes it to AppleInsider.com, but a search of AppleInsider turns up no article where they assigned a monetary value to the issue. A site called TrustedReviews repeats the $10 price tag with no source. (“You don’t need a source. Just trust us!”) MacNewsWorld even puts the amount in its headline, although the article gives no justification for how they arrived at it. Sky News helpfully converts the amount to £6 but again provides no source for this value.

Are people just making up stuff and publishing it as fact? Or is there some root source for this $10 amount that I’m missing and which nobody is bothering to cite? (My suspicion is that one person took a wild guess and everybody else decided to run with it.)